Crickdom

INDIA

The British brought cricket to the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. However, the first cricket club was founded in 1792. Moreover, the men’s national cricket team of India took part in their first international game on June 25, 1932. They played at Test at Lord’s. India became the sixth team to receive Test cricket status. Nevertheless nearly twenty years, India had to wait until 1952 before it won a Test match. With only 35 victories in 196 Test matches in its first fifty years of international cricket, it had little success. Nonetheless, the squad grew stronger in the 1970s as players like Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath, Kapil Dev, and the Indian spin quartet came to prominence.

Cricket in India is more like a religion than Sports. From Gavaskar to Sachin, Sachin to Kohli and Kohli to Gill, India have produced world class batters who ruled the cricket world. The country has produced spin wizards in Bedi, Prasanna, Kumble, Harbhajan.

History

The first cricket match was played in India in 1721. However, cricket was introduced there by the British in the early 1700s. The Oriental Cricket Club was the first cricket club to be founded by Indians. Moreover, it was founded by the Parsi community in Mumbai in 1848. Following a sluggish start, the Europeans eventually asked the Parsis to a game in 1877. Around 1912, the Parsis, Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims of Bombay regularly competed against the Europeans in a quadrangular tournament. Moreover, some Indians eventually joined the England cricket team in the early 1900s.

Indian ICC Tournament Titles

India has won the ICC ODI World Cup twice in 1983 and 2011. Kapil Dev inspired the team to famous victory in the 1983 World Cup. This inspired generations of cricketers to pursue cricket as a career.

In 2007, Dhoni took a young team to the maiden T20 World Cup victory. No one thought that India would win the World Cup. Dhoni took India to a world cup victory in India in 2011. The World Cup was played at Wankhdede Stadium, Mumbai. In 2013, India won the Champions Trophy for the first time beating England by 5 runs. Dhoni became the successful captain in the history of Indian cricket by winning all the ICC Trophies.

They have also won the Asia Cup seven times, in 1984, 1988, 1990–91, 1995, 2010, 2016 and 2018, whilst finishing runners-up thrice (1997, 2004, 2008).